Akhilesh govt faces Rs 35,000-crore foodgrain scam heat

It's only 10 days since Akhilesh Yadav took over as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and he has come face to face with his first litmus test.

The country's top investigation agency the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has told the nation's top court that it recently searched the premises of Narendra Singh and Mahesh Singh, brothers of Vinod Kumar Singh alias Pandit Singh, in Gonda's Nawabganj area in connection with the foodgrain scam.

Pandit Singh, minister of state for medical education in the Mulayam Singh Yadav government between 2003 and 2007, has been appointed minister of state for revenue, relief and rehabilitation in the Akhilesh Yadav government. Narendra Singh and Mahesh Singh are allegedly involved in the Rs 35,000-crore foodgrain scam, more than four times the Rs 5,700-crore NRHM scam that took place between March 2004 and October 2006 when Mayawati was the chief minister.

NRHM is short for National Rural Health Mission, a central government scheme under which state governments are given funds to improve the healthcare of the poor.

As far as the foodgrain scam goes, petitioner Vishwanath Chaturvedi alleged foodgrain meant for distribution under the government's Public Distribution System (PDS) was smuggled to Bangladesh and Nepal by a cabal of politicians, bureaucrats, hoarders and ration shop-owners. PDS shops were supposed to distribute the foodgrain among BPL and APL families, and for meals served to children free of cost at government-run schools. BPL and APL are acronyms for Below Poverty Line and Above Poverty Line respectively, two classes of economically weaker families entitled to subsidised foodgrain from government ration shops.

Although Mulayam and his son Akhilesh were not available for comment, they have said many a times after the formation of the new government that they would spare no one, not even their own corrupt ministers. "We are in favour of clean governance. Even ministers would be punished if found involved in corruption or crime," Mulayam said on Friday. For the record, the Allahabad High Court referred the case to the CBI in December 2010. Mayawati had referred the case to the CBI in 2007. The agency in March 2008 registered an FIR against over 2,000 people.

"The inquiries have proved that all the foodgrain supplied to the state under PDS was smuggled to Bangladesh and Nepal. Officers from top to bottom are involved in it," Chaturvedi said. "The foodgrain transported in trucks was shown as carried on motorcycles in books to mislead investigators," he said.

Over 200 officials, rice mill owners and middlemen have been arrested so far by the CBI. D.K. Shukla, an auditor in the department of food and civil supplies in Lakhimpur Kheri and a whistleblower, was found killed in Rae Bareli in December 2004. Shailendra Singh, the regional food controller of Lakhimpur Kheri, was arrested for the murder.